Robert Richardson (RAAF officer)

Robert Richardson
Robert Richardson
Nickname(s)	Pin
Born	14 May 1941; Melbourne, Victoria
Allegiance	Australia
Service/branch	Royal Australian Air Force
Years of service	1961–97
Rank	Air Vice Marshal
Commands held	Deputy Chief of Air Force (1997); Training Command (1992–93); Aircraft Research and Development Unit (1986–87)
Battles/wars	Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation
Awards	Officer of the Order of Australia; Air Force Cross

Air Vice Marshal Robert Victor Richardson, AO, AFC (born 13 May 1941) is a retired senior commander of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He was the Air Officer Commanding Training Command 1992 to 1993, and Deputy Chief of Air Force in 1997.

Early life and career

Richardson was born in Melbourne, Victoria, on 13 May 1941, and joined the RAAF in 1961.[1] He completed pilots course and was posted to No. 77 Squadron to fly the Avon Sabre in Malaysia, Singapore and North Borneo. He was posted to Thailand and flew the Avon Sabre at No. 79 Squadron. After instructor training, Richardson was posted to Basic Flying Training School and instructed from 1966 to 1967.

Following his tour as an Instructor, Richardson undertook the Empire Test Pilots' School Fixed Wing course in 1968 where he won the Hawker Hunter trophy with B.P.L. Stokes for the best Preview Handling report on the course. At the completion of the course he was posted to the Aircraft Research and Development Unit, RAAF Base Laverton. He was actively involved in the operational development of the RAAF's Mirages, F/A-18 Hornets and F111Cs, flying 5500 hours in over 40 types from sailplanes to the F-16 and F/A-18. In 1986 to 1987 Richardson commanded the Aircraft Research and Development Unit, by then at RAAF Base Edinburgh.[2]

In his later career he specialised in strategic Defence planning (he was co-author of the 1994 Government White Paper on Defence) and in RAAF personnel management, finally spending several years as an air vice-marshal looking after RAAF personnel and budgetary resources and later Deputy Chief of Air Force. After part-time Reserve duty conducting a major review of the Defence Cadets organisation, Richardson retired from the RAAF in 2003.

Personal life

Richardson is an Alpaca and Merino woolgrower at Bowning, New South Wales.

gollark: <@356209633313947648> Don't have proprietary software on CC? Proprietary bad.

gollark: It's JSON. Which is very space-inefficient.

gollark: <@114827439070248961> 8KB area at tape start.

gollark: I made a thing to bulk-convert files to DFPWM and stick them on a tape, with metadata, so you can select tracks. The playback thing just randomly picks tracks, because UIs are hard.

gollark: Arbitrary DFPWM sound files that is - DFPWM is some weird codec used nowhere else - but it's cool still.

References

"Air Vice-Marshals (L-Z)". Air Marshals of the RAAF. RAAF Air Power Development Centre. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
"Clearview Alpacas – Who are we?". Bob Richardson. Retrieved 22 March 2014.

Military offices
Preceded by Air Vice Marshal David Rogers	Deputy Chief of Air Force 1997	Succeeded by Air Vice Marshal Errol McCormack

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[airpower-1] "Air Vice-Marshals (L-Z)". Air Marshals of the RAAF. RAAF Air Power Development Centre. Retrieved 22 March 2014.

[Alpacas-2] "Clearview Alpacas – Who are we?". Bob Richardson. Retrieved 22 March 2014.